Lebanese city of Tripoli shook by deadly explosions

A minimum of 27 people have been killed and even more than 350 hurt by 2 blasts in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli, authorities state.

As Friday prayers ended, a blast hit the al-Taqwa mosque, normally gone to by prominent Sunni cleric Sheikh Salem Rafii. He was unharmed.

A second blast five minutes later on hit the al-Salam mosque.

War in neighbouring Syria has actually raised sectarian stress between the city’s Sunni Muslim and Alawite areas.

‘Like an earthquake’.

Sheikh Salem Rafii is one of the most popular Sunni leaders in Lebanon, BBC Arabic reports from Beirut, and is believed to be a possible target of the attack.

He is opposed to Lebanon’s militant Shia Hezbollah team and has previously advised the nation’s young men to join opposition boxers in Syria.

It is unclear whether he was at the mosque at the time of the attack, although some reports state he was providing a sermon.

The BBC’s Yolande Knell in Beirut says the cleric is expected to provide a statement after fulfilling the Muslim Clerics’ Council, the umbrella body for Lebanese Sunni leaders.

Ambulances hurried to the results of the blasts and heavy black smoke covered the sky.

Map showing Tripoli in Lebanon.

“It was as if there was an earthquake, the whole city appeared to be shaking,” a neighborhood citizen told Lebanon’s Daily Star paper.

Television images revealed damaged vehicles on fire, with their windows smashed, and individuals running with the roads trying to carry wounded individuals to security.

Bodies can be seen on the ground and windows were broken on surrounding apartment blocks.

The Associated Press reported that the preacher at the al-Salam mosque – the website of the 3rd explosion – is also an opponent of the Syrian government and its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah.

No team has actually taken duty for the current attacks.

Tripoli, a city of nearly 200,000 individuals and Lebanon’s third largest, is among the nation’s most unstable sectarian geological fault, with a little Alawite population living in the midst of a Sunni majority.

The Alawite area often sustain Syrian Head of state Bashar al-Assad, with Sunnis mainly backing the rebels battling him.

The bombs come a week after a large automobile bomb shook a Shia area of Beirut, leaving lots dead. The location hit contained Hezbollah strongholds.

Outgoing Lebanese Head of state, Najib Mikati, condemned the current lethal surges, saying they aimed to “incite strife” and “drag Tripoli and it sons into reactionary moves”.

Lebanese city of Tripoli shook by deadly explosions